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EDITORIAL
Leadership

Jim Coggins

“Leadership development” has been chosen as one of three main “foci” of the Canadian MB Conference. (This weekend, March 28-31, a major consultation is taking place in Winnipeg to help the Canadian Conference envision what role it should play in this area.)

I find it interesting that the way we talk about this issue has changed. Fifteen years ago, we would probably have talked about “the need for pastors”; now we talk about “the need for leaders” and by that term often mean “pastors”. I am not sure that the change in terms reflects a major change in understanding. After all, pastors (which literally means “shepherds”) were always expected to lead the sheep. On the other hand, a recent survey of pastors in the US revealed that only 10% thought they had the gift of leadership. Evidently, “pastors” and “leaders” are not the same thing, although there is, and should be, considerable overlap between the two terms. Pastors are not the only leaders in the church, and pastors do many things other than lead, but nevertheless pastors should be leaders.

In any case, the discussion of this focus has led me to do some reflecting on what exactly leadership is. I have come to the conclusion that leadership consists of two things: setting a direction and convincing people to follow. Neither task is easy, and even when leaders excel at one of these tasks, they may well fail at the other.

Setting direction

Leaders should be able to see farther than the people they lead. They should be able to understand the present and see what is going to be necessary in the future. In church terms, pastors should be able to understand their congregations and their communities and see what their congregations need to do to impact their communities with the gospel. This task is not easy. It takes hard work, thought, research, study, prayer and the gift of discernment. Leaders must be visionaries.

Former Canadian Conference Executive Minister Reuben Pauls told of hearing a sermon defining leadership from Jesus’ example of “going a little farther” in Matthew 26:39: Leaders should be a little ahead of their people – not so far ahead that they have lost touch with them and yet not so much with them that they can’t lead them forward to a better place than where they are now.

Many churches are badly in need of such leadership. Pastor, board and people plod along doing what they have always done, blissfully unaware of the reality of their current situation and not thinking about whether any changes may need to be made.

Convincing people to follow

I have also seen church leaders fail at the second aspect of leadership. Many pastors and church boards have clearly analyzed their situations and discerned an appropriate direction to go – and then assumed that their task was completed. In reality, they have done only half the leadership job.

Sometimes church leaders assume that since they have the official leadership “positions”, the people will automatically follow them anywhere. That assumption is unwarranted. The key word is “convince”. Since, by definition, followers are not expected to see as far ahead as leaders, it will take work to bring the followers forward to the level the leaders have reached. In fact, it may well take as much or more work to convince the people to follow as it did to develop the vision in the first place.

Inherent in “convince” is the assumption that the people have a real choice about whether to follow the leaders’ vision. In fact, the word even implies that the people have the right to choose not to follow the leaders. Any attempt to shortcircuit the process by manipulation (for instance, by obtaining a favourable result in a vote without really obtaining a heartfelt commitment) will inevitably blow up in the leaders’ faces. As the old adage says, if you think you are a leader and no one is following, then you are just taking a walk. In that case, the vision may be wrong or the people may be wrong, but the fact remains that leaders can’t lead if the people won’t follow.

Furthermore, I believe that in the long run the ability to convince does not rest primarily on charisma, speaking ability, persuasiveness, logic, political skill or organizational position. Rather, it rests primarily on respect. Several years ago, I knew a particular pastor whose congregation had given him tremendous power. Other pastors envied this man’s power and wished that they could set up their church structures so that they had the same power. Yet, this man’s power did not come from his position or from his church’s organizational structure. Rather, his position flowed from his power, and his power flowed from respect. His people admired him for his integrity and for the time he spent in prayer and Bible study. His power was not institutional but spiritual. Power is influence, and people are primarily influenced by those leaders they respect, whether those “leaders” have official leadership positions or not.

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Last modified March 30, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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